I've been reading this book off-and-on for so long that it's difficult for me to coalesce my thoughts about it into a coherent review. There are two reasons for this. First of all, my reading of Lohfink's work faced the minor interruption of completing my doctoral thesis. That may have contributed a bit to my scattered recollections of Lohfink's most salient points. :-) Secondly, I decided to take notes as a I read; I ended up with 83 pages. A little overboard, I'll admit, but Lohfink's work well repaid the slow read.

On the whole, this is a VERY good book, filled with tremendous insight into both the fundamental theology of the Old and New Testament. The title of the book poses the fundamental question: Does God "need" the Church? The book is a resounding "Yes!" We know that God "needs" a special, chosen People simply because, from the beginning of Creation, God has always had a special, chosen People. It is the revealed nature of how God works in the world.

Though Lohfink is dealing with the broad sweep of Scripture, he very carefully anchors his insights in close readings of Old and New Testament texts. In reality, these specific readings, almost more than his generalized conclusions, are the great value of the book. Lohfink is a tremendous reader of Scripture, able to bring his expertise in the sociology of early Greco-Roman and Christian communities to bear in ways that genuinely insightful for contemporary understanding.

The book is closely argued but isn't dense or hard-to-follow. Lohfink is purposely writing a more "popular level" version that builds on his prior academic work (especially "Jesus and Community"). Here, Lohfink is quite "quotable," which is probably more of a credit to the translator than perhaps to Lohfink himself. (It's very rare that theological German phrases become quotable English sayings.)

I was also pleased how Lohfink kept the book from becoming an apologia for the Roman Catholic Church. To be honest, that was perhaps my only hesitation with this text. Only at the very end, when he attempts to make a case for papal authority does Lohfink's argument sound like special pleading. Other than that, this is a measured work of biblical theology, equally valuable to Protestant and Catholic traditions alike, and certainly a statement that must be reckoned with by all future analyses of biblical missiology/ecclesiology. ( )